By Crime Historian Laura James, Esquire (c) 2005-14 WELCOME to my study of historic true crime, a literary blog where the chairs rest at the intersection of history, journalism, law, and murder, and the shelves are filled with the finest true crime literature. STEAL FROM THIS LIBRARY AND IT'S PISTOLS AT DAWN.

The Lost Art of Writing Crime Headlines

The most famous newspaper headline ever written in the U.S. of A. was DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. But that's rather cheap, isn't it, since the joke was on the man who wrote it. The better headlines have imparted intended humor or double meanings, but the art of writing a newspaper headline seems to have gone the way of quillwork and macrame. Current journalism schooladvice sucks all the sass out of modern headlines. These days, any overly creative headlines are likely to earn their authors a bonk on the head. And thus we might never again see such gems as:

CAPERS CRAPS OUT. (announcing the murder of one Tom Capers during a dice game)

HEADLESS BODY FOUND IN TOPLESS BAR

JUVENILE COURT TO TRY SHOOTING DEFENDANT

MAN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING FACES BATTERY CHARGE

STEALS CLOCK, FACES TIME

WORLD'S IN AN AWFUL MESS (the all-encompassing work product of a journalist who was having a particularly bad news day)

Okay, OKAY, it's not so easy to walk that fine line and come up with a decent headline for a crime story. I once had the privilege of working a brief stint as a copy editor for the Lapeer County Press in my home state of Michigan, and headlines are not easy to write, let me tell you. Only one of my headlines garnered any notice; as soon as I wrote it and sent it back to the composing room, I heard laughter. The next day, readers called in to thank us for the chuckle. I never did figure out what was so ticklish about MAN IN PINK NIGHTIE FLASHES ATTICA WOMAN.

Anyway, my regular readers -- the four of you -- if I count all of my sisters -- are probably wondering where I'm going with this. So the other day I was casually perusing an 1894 edition of the Olean Democrat from New York state when I happened upon:

REMARKABLE FEMININE FREAK.

Well, that'll stop your eyes, won't it? The subhead read,

Alleged Murderess Who

Smokes, Shaves and

Wears Men's Attire.

The city of Toronto furnished this tale of a black woman named Clara Ford, dubbed a "remarkable specimen of femininity" -- because she disguised herself as a man, carried a revolver, played the coronet and kettle-drum, read works relating to love and murder, drove a hack for two years, was a choir boy in an Episcopal church, and joined a Socialist group solely for the purpose of haranguing men who held socialist views. Her sex was discovered accidentally when she was tied to the murder of one Frank Westwood, a young, white, well-to-do man from a prominent family who was shot dead at his front door. Per the press coverage, she confessed to shooting him out of jealousy.

The Ford-Westwood case has been the subject of two longer treatments, a 1945 book by Edwin C. Guillet, The Shooting of Frank Westwood: A Study of the Evidence in The Queen versus Clara Ford, 1894-1895. The tale has been updated only recently by Ontario attorney Patrick Brode, who wrote Death in the Queen City: Clara Ford on Trial, 1895 which is available exclusively from the publisher, Natural Heritage Books. That outfit promises to deliver "a bizarre story of romance and racism" and a "wildly unconventional" defendant. It sounds like a remarkable book, so I won't spoil it for you by revealing the outcome of Ford's trial.

Unless you have to know right now. **Spoiler alert** The accused proved an alibi during the trial -- or at least that's what the jury hung its hat on when it announced his/her acquittal. I'll leave it to you to come up with an appropriate headline for that outcome. All I can come up with is HE / SHE SET FREE.

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[I apologize to those who wanted nothing more than to start Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and an epic History Carnival. Don't blame me. Blame Kos.] This installment of the History Carnival opens with Laura James' brilliant post [Read More]

Tracked on October 15, 2005 at 06:17 PM

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"my regular readers -- the four of you -- if I count all of my sisters"

:-) Up that number to five. Since discovering your blog a few weeks back, I've come to thoroughly enjoy it. Crime stories are always more interesting (and strange) when they're true!

I like some of the political headlines especially when there are name plays. For example with Tony Blair, the headline was "Bliar". This became very well kown and used especially with the anti war lobby. Apparently it fits nicely onto a plackard.

Your readers might like a new true-crime book "Trail of Feathers" by Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News. Rivard joined the search for a missing reporter in Mexico, and found similarities of startling proportions between himself and his lost writer ... and a Mexican justice system that, to this day, has not imprisoned the confessed killers.

I often think of Orwell's "1984" when faced with the barrage of 'political correctness' brought on by the myriad of special interest groups that arose like a tidal wave of thought police in the 80's. It's not that I'm against the increase of awareness and sensitivity towards others and the rise in social consciousness of our society as a whole; I just think the the pendulum has swung too far in that direction. Besides all of that: IT'S QUITE BORING!!!

As a crime editor years back I handled a copy on a killer who sells the penis of his victims,which are preserved in bottles. I crafted the headline: 'Merchant of Penis'. Sounds like Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

NewspaperArchiveMy most very favorite site on the internet. Millions of digitized, text-searchable newspapers from across the U.S. and the world. If my computer somehow froze up and I had access to only one website, this would be it.

Paper of Record Another pay-to-play website that features searchable historic newspapers. Canada is particularly well represented in its collection.